The Land of Geese

The main purpose of the Tohoku trip was, of course, to visit Izunuma and Kabukurinuma, the place for thousands of wintering geese. The old records suggest that there used to live lots of geese in Tokyo bay as well but after the big development and landfill, they are all gone and now we have to go either Tohoku area or the Japanese sea side to see them.  



We got to the Lake Izunuma earlier than the sunrise and waited.  It was freezing cold but the calls of the geese getting noisier and noisier brought us an uplifting feeling.   



Several minutes after the sunrise, at around 7:20, suddenly, they all started to take off.  It was just like Peter Scott's paintings.  The sun was already starting to warm us.
I come here to watch it only one morning in several years perhaps but it's a drama taken place every winter day for hundreds of years.   
夜が明ける、そんな毎日の単純なことに喜びを感じる伊豆沼の朝。



Greater White-fronted Geese
日が昇り、周辺の田んぼで採食するマガンをスケッチ。せっかくならカリガネ探しもしようかと思ったけれど、スケッチしながら、群れのすべてのガンを一羽一羽チェックするなんていうことは出来ないことが判明。どれだけ時間があっても足りない。絵を描いているほうが幸せ。



I like watching birds feeding. It is not only because they are more likely to stay at a place and it is easier to draw but because I feel that they are not worrying about us.



Ural Owl 予期しない鳥との出会いは格別にうれしい。気づいたら道路脇にいたフクロウ。こんなにしっかりスケッチができてしまった！
He (or she) was sitting and sleeping on a pine tree at the roadside!
I picked a sketchbook, which my friend got me from India, and drew.  This paper didn't absorb water as easy as normal one but that made an interesting effect with brush strokes.